Newt paid own company, self

Newt Gingrich’s campaign paid him $47,000 for a list of supporters and paid one of his companies another $67,000 for web hosting, according to a report filed Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission.

The report shows that the former House speaker’s campaign raised $9.8 million in the last three months of the year, but that it spent almost that much — $8.1 million — and finished the year with $2.1 million in the bank and $1.2 million in debt.

Gingrich’s year-end fundraising is expected to be dwarfed by that of rival Mitt Romney, who has yet to file his fourth quarter FEC report. But Gingrich’s campaign, which got new life after his strong win in the South Carolina primary, said its fundraising has surged in January, announcing it had pulled in $5 million this month.

In the fourth quarter, the campaign invested in fundraising, spending $978,000 on direct mail and Internet fundraising, and it hired more staff, paying $279,000 in salaries, and opened more offices, paying $124,000 in rent.

For instance, it paid $67,000 for web hosting to Gingrich Productions, which had previously received payments for web development totaling $8,400.

The campaign also paid Gingrich himself $47,000 for a list of supporters, plus another $206,000 for travel.

It’s not unusual for for campaigns to pay rent or buy lists from political committees or non-profits affiliated with the candidate, and it’s fairly common for campaigns to reimburse staffers for travel or other expenses.

But it’s unusual for a presidential candidate personally to be paid significant amounts for travel or lists — both because candidates can contribute an unlimited amount in cash or services to their own campaigns and because campaigns typically foot travel costs directly. And the Gingrich campaign did not immediately respond to questions about the payments.

Gingrich has a penchant for flying private charter jets, and the campaign appears to have reined in its payments to his charter jet company of choice, Moby Dick Airways, which was paid $133,000 in the fourth quarter for private jet air fare. Still, the campaign reported owing the company $352,000, as well as $472,000 to a phone banking company for “telemarketing program costs.”